Water flows in most of the rivers east of the Cascades has
remained stable and easily fishable much of this winter. Trout still feed
when the water temperatures are cold. But don't worry when all of the snow
that has been making our ski destinations jump and jive starts to melt,
these same rivers will be running high and brown. In either situation,
banging the bottom with eggs, nymphs and worms can be very productive.
Both high and cold water conditions tend to condense fish populations into
slower flows. Often the best water speeds occur right against
the shore line where the fish

are easiest to cast to. Survey the river and pick your
spots. During periods of high water there is a lot
of bed-load-shift on the bottom and sides of the river channel. Along
with the movement of

gravels and soils many aquatic trout
food organisms are washed down the river. This is called catastrophic
drift. The superabundance of food can put trout on the bite. As a river
rises the soft parts of the bottom shift first. Weed beds and the soft
silts that support them tear loose from the stream bed. This is the prime
habitat for
leeches
and aquatic worms. As the water continues to rise
and the velocity increases the smaller gravels start to move. Some of
these gravel can contain the eggs of salmon that
spawned when the river was at its lowest. These gravels also contain
many

aquatic invertebrates such as
mayfly and
stone fly nymphs,
caddis
and crane fly larvae. Large stonefly nymphs are a good bite for even
the largest river trout. Try fishing a heavily weighted

stonefly nymph on a dropper with an egg fly. This kind
of rig is often referred to as "steak & eggs". Or replace the egg with
a worm...sounds pretty basic. Who can deny that both worms and eggs
catch trout in high water. Now you can use your fly rod, avoiding the
mess and turn you catch loose unharmed, if you wish. At left is a medium
size, five-compartment stuffed with the kinds of flies that make trout bite
during the winter months. In addition to the types of flies mentioned above,
throw in a few large
cased
caddis larvae.

Many fly fishers who started fishing as children, actually started
fishing with live angle worms. That is because trout love to eat worms.
Not all worms live in your lawn. Worms occur in dense populations in many silty stream
and lake beds. Worms also occur in the bottoms of fast moving gravel bed
rivers. During times of floods, catastrophic drift can expose many worms
to waiting trout. During these high water periods a
San Juan Worm drifted along the bottom can be
deadly. On local rivers "the worm" is a very productive fly
during winter months or any time

the river rises due to floods.
Aquatic worms come in a variety of colors ranging from tan to red.
Often a fake "worm fly" that is brighter colored than real ones will produce strikes, especially when the
water is turbid. Be sure to have several colors of worms in your fly box.

Deschutes Worm,
Pink
We spent a lot of time screening the Deschutes River, looking at the
aquatic invertebrates that live there. The majority of worm that live in
the substrate are pinkish. the first time we fished this pattern during
spring run-off the trout gave it two thumbs up. (Well they
would have if they had thumbs.)

Tying The Worm
Ya, ya...I know, you're wondering why some guy would write a tutorial on
how to tie a worm, the simplest of all flies. Well, remember when you
began tying flies? It wasn't that easy then. There ain't nuthin' the
matter with easy! Tying a bushel of these flies is both practical
and easy, a good combination. Tie them in several colors and tie them in
volume so that you can fish them at risk around cover where the big ol'
good 'uns live. Well we are talkin' worm fishing, ya' know.

As simple as the worm is to tie, there are several
variations on it. The worm described here is very productive when it comes
to catching fish. The "prepared" Ultra Chenille is attached to the
hook in only on small area. Be sure to finish off the fly with a good
knot.

There are many hooks you can use for tying worm flies.
Tiemco 2457, #12 are 2X heavy, down eye, 2X wide, 2X short hook that have
amazing strength. They are very sharp out of the package and are easy to
sharpen if they make too much contact with the stream bed.

Ultra Chenille comes carded. The cards are just the right
width for quick assembly of worms. Cut the entire package of Ultra
Chenille at one time by slipping one blade of your long scissors in along
the edge of the card and slice all the layers at once. Hang onto the
entire unit, flip it over and cut the other side. Your worm blanks
are all the right length.

A regular candle is all you need for tapering the ends of
your worms. Pass each tip of each Ultra Chenille piece over or along
side of the flame and the heat will taper them. Trial and error will teach
you how much heat you need. Be conservative with heat starting out.

Be quick or the Ultra Chenille will catch fire. The
picture is a dramatization. If the Ultra Chenille were actually being
heated, the picture would be blurred. It is easiest to taper all of
the Ultra Chenille pieces at one sitting. This makes "the worm" one of the
easiest flies to assembly-line.

Attach a short foundation of pink 3/0 Uni thread to the
hook. It wouldn't hurt to add a small drop of head cement. When dry, it will
stop any chance of the fly rotating or sliding on the hook.

Six to ten wraps of thread is all that it takes to attach
the worm body to the hook. We like to tie the worm so it trails on
the look. This gives it a very life-like appearance. We allow the front
1/3 to 1/4 of the worm be forward of the hook eye. Short strikes
don't seem to be a problem.

Whip finish the thread to secure and trim of the tag end.
Coat the thread wraps with head cement and the worm is ready to fish.

Our list of threads is far too long to include in a
newsletter, so the links above will take you to our Thread Selection.
Thread is a key player in the march toward civilization. The arrow, the
plow, and the anvil get more recognition, but thread was one of the
primary components to being able to assemble things. Thread allowed men to
withstand harsher elements by weary clothes, and to tie rocks onto sticks, and feathers
onto bone. Hooks and thread are the two primary fly tying components. You
can't tie a fly unless you have both items.
In the beginning, flies were
probably tied on bone hooks with sinew thread or twisted fibers from plants. No
doubt flies have been tied with both cotton and flax threads. When fly
tying became a popular topic for English literature in the 1800's, silk
threads were the best available. All of these early threads were made from
organic materials which tend to deteriorate rather quickly with exposure to the elements, which is one of the reasons why few ancient flies
have survived to modern times. Since the 1950's, both nylon and polyester
threads have gained popularity with fly tiers all over the world and
nearly all modern tying threads are made from synthetic fibers. Nylon
and polyester threads are thinner and stronger than silk, giving the tier
the option of building flies with less bulk. Threads made from synthetic
fibers survive exposure to the elements much better that organic threads.
Polyester has less stretch than nylon, which gives a tier more control
over each wrap. Nylon threads are more translucent than polyester and are
often less brightly colored. However, some nylon threads, such as
Danville's 210 Denier Flat Waxed are exceptionally bright colored. The tying threads offered at The Fly Fishing
Shop are a collection that we like to tie with. We tie a wide variety of
flies from tiny trout flies to monster bluewater flies. So, you might
expect that our selection of favorite threads is wide and varied. It is. But,
our selection is also streamlined and manageable. Each thread in the collection
serves a specific tying need, and has been proven to fit a specific role
better than competing threads.

Ultra Chenille, StandardThis remarkably adaptable material looks much like regular
chenille but is much denser and of a more
uniform diameter. Regular chenille is made from fibers that are spun
between two stout threads. It may be unraveled. Ultra chenille is made by
raising the nap from a monofilament core.

It is
all one piece of material and will not unravel. It tapers easily with an
open flame. It is the ultimate material from which to construct size #12
and #14 extended body caddis and midge pupa such as Smith's
Emergent/Diving Caddis and Palomino Midge Pupa. It also is the best
material for tying San Juan Worms and is easily colored with felt
markers. 3 yard card.